The city’s Chief Digital Officer, Rachel Sterne, and Mayor Bloomberg, unveiled a tech-centric digital map to help job-seekers find work. Mayor Bloomberg wants to lead job-seekers to work with a new interactive, digital map that will link users to job openings at tech firms. “Not only does it show you where a company is located, you can also quickly discover if it’s hiring,” Bloomberg crowed in unveiling the map Tuesday. The digital jobs map — http://www.mappedinny.com/ — is an interactive guide to the city’s tech start-ups, investors, incubators and shared working spaces, he said. The map plots more than 500 digital companies in the city, including Facebook, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Seamless and, of course, Bloomberg L.P. More than 325 digital companies that are listed on the map are now hiring, Bloomberg administration officials said. The map also locates offices of investors, making it a convenient tool for start-ups in search of capital. (Continue reading at www.nydailynews.com)

My Two Cents: Being a technology corporation located in the heart of the New York Technology Sector, its good to have the City government making it a little easier for us to find good talent. Having an office here in the Flatiron district, makes it a wonderful place for developers to live and work. I personally can never go back to Silicon Valley, I would rather walk home, then get stuck on the 101 or 280 in traffic…

Oracle and Google continued their legal battle in San Francisco federal court on Thursday, beginning the day with a tussle over the authenticity of Java code that Oracle claims to have downloaded from Google’s website on March 12. Oracle says the file shows that Google has not removed the allegedly infringing Android code from its public website as Google claims to have done. Google wants some assurance that the file really was downloaded then. (Continue reading at www.informationweek.com)

My Two Cents: Let me sum this up as a software developer. Shame on you Google, you will lose this case big time to Oracle, you cannot use someone elses property then resale it, or give it away. Its not yours to do so. You must develop the software yourself, or purchase a license. This includes any APIs, which is software code that is owned by Oracle. This is a pretty closed case here. Once proof is provided by Oracle and Google cannot dispute that the Java code is not theirs, then Google is liable for this. I feel as a software developer, people should go to jail over this. Its so easy to use other people’s code who we spend countless hours developing outside the box, when it doesn’t exist. Very sad to see that this happened. I am sure Justice will be served here.

Voice recognition software works by sending speech to processors that break down spoken words into sound waves and use algorithms to identify the most likely words formed by the sounds. The system typically records and stores speech so it can teach itself to become more accurate over time. (Continue reading at www.startribune.com)

My Two Cents: Voice recognition software has been around for a very long time, especially with IVR systems. What I find exciting today is how accurate the new systems are, and where these systems are turning up. I find the Apple Siri system very useful when sending text. I also find foreign language translation very useful too. We are now leveraging this technology with our inspection and workflow systems in the field, which as been a huge success.

If you use LinkedIn, you’ve probably told the site where you work, what you do and who you work with. That’s a gold mine for hackers, who are increasingly savvy in using that kind of public but personal information for pinpoint attacks. LinkedIn’s vulnerability is inextricably tied to its growth. The site now has 150 million users almost twice as many as it had just one year ago. As its database grows richer, its value increases for both its members and those wishing to exploit them. (Continue reading at www.cnn.com)

My Two Cents: LinkedIn is a good tool, but it is a social networking site, and you MUST be careful. This article is correct about what to share and what not to share.

The Federal Communication Commission predicts a “looming spectrum crunch” in a recently published paper, Mobile Broadband: The Benefits of Additional Spectrum. The agency predicts that U.S. mobile data users will start feeling the spectrum crunch within five years. Users of smartphones, tablets, PC aircards and MiFi-style routers, and even feature phones will feel this pinch. It will hinder the speed, quality, performance and reliability of wireless broadband connections. Users of iPhones in California’s Bay Area and several other metro regions have found out in the last several years what a spectrum crunch feels like. When a carrier like AT&T faces a far greater demand for data than its network hardware can deliver, users end up waiting and waiting for Web pages, maps, apps and more to update. E-mails take a long time to download, and sending photos or video slows to a snail’s pace. (Continue reading at www.cnn.com)

My Two Cents: Here in New York City I have experienced this spectrum crunch during the New York Philharmonic Concerts in Central Park. When you have close to a Million people on the lawn for the concert all calling, texting, and emailing at the same time, the spectrum is over-loaded, your mobile device does not work. So we take colored balloons for everyone to find us at the concert. So what needs to happen in the future is the FCC will need to permit more spectrum frequencies to carriers or hand out balloons. Of course cleaning the noise on existing spectrum frequencies can help and mobile devices can be re-engineered not to waste bandwidth. There are a lot of ways to fix this problem. Which makes this field exciting.

Many believe that Apple’s decision to keep Siri away from non-4S iOS devices is part of their marketing strategy, while some believe that the company is simply unable to provide the service to the whole iOS population. But whatever the reason is behind it, it appears like Apple will always be deciding on who all will be playing with the voice assistant. They have killed Siri on jailbroken iOS devices other than the iPhone 4S. (Continue reading at www.mobilemag.com)

My Two Cents: Last week I upgraded to the Apple iPhone 4S. I am very surprised on how much I like Siri, and how well it works. Being a business partner with Sprint since 2004 I am so happy they offer the iPhone 4s. Our Adept applications in the field run very well on the Apple iPhone including the 4S, and using Siri to talk instead of write text is just amazing. So I can see why Apple is making sure it only operates on their devices. The value added is huge.

If you use Google, It has every e-mail you ever sent or received on Gmail. It has every search you ever made, the contents of every chat you ever had over Google Talk. Google holds a record of every telephone conversation you had using Google Voice, it knows every Google Alert you’ve set up. It has your Google Calendar with all content going back as far as you’ve used it, including everything you’ve done every day since then. It knows your contact list with all the information you may have included about yourself and the people you know. It has your pictures, your news page configuration, indicating what topics you’re most interested in. And so on.
If you ever used Google while logged in to your account to search for a person, a symptom, a medical side effect, a political idea; if you ever gossiped using one of Google’s services, all of this is on Google’s servers. And thanks to the magic of Google’s algorithms, it is easy to sift through the information because Google search works like a charm. Google can even track searches on your computer when you’re not logged in for up to six months. (Continue reading at www.cnn.com)

My Two Cents: Yes, Google tracks you and stores your information. People tend to forget that Google is not a personal private service that for free allows you all these services. The masses have value in search trends and information, Google leverages this value. You have the option NOT to use their services, or if you don’t care about your privacy use their services. I personally use these services as public domain, if I don’t want the world to know what color of underwear I have on, I will not use google services or facebook about this personal information. I am sure Google knows what the most common and uncommon underwear color is used along with other personal data that really should not be known. So remember Google is Public, Facebook is Public!!

Could entertainment-related computers in cars’ navigation, phones and the like be hacked, providing an entry point to manipulate computers controlling safety functions? “There clearly is a vulnerability,” said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based in Arlington, Va. “All these electronics we’re bringing into cars seem to exacerbate that.”(Continue reading at www.usatoday.com)

My Two Cents: I would agree, yes your car if running these systems can be hacked if they are exposed to systems running in the internet. I guess its time to purchase a router with a firewall and placed it next to the GPS unit in your car…

Google plans to start combining information the company collects about each user of its various websites and services into a single profile, the company announced on Tuesday. Google uses some of the data it collects based on people’s usage in order to deliver advertisements customized to individuals.Google’s new privacy policy will go into effect on March 1. It applies to everyone who is logged into a Google account while searching, checking Gmail, watching YouTube videos or downloading apps to an Android phone. (Continue reading at www.cnn.com)

My Two Cents: Sounds like big brother to me. However Google belongs to Google. It is their service and website. But, I feel Google needs to make it very clear, that when you are logged into your Google account, they will be tracking and storing everything you do. Your privacy does not exist.

Wikipedia was among several websites to shut down at midnight today in protest of anti-piracy bills now in the US Congress that critics say could amount to censorship. “Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge,” said the stark message in white letters on a black and gray background on Wikipedia. The protest is in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act bill, a piece of proposed legislation that is working its way through the Congress. A Senate committee approved a similar bill in May called the Protect IP Act, which is now pending before the full Senate.(Continue reading at www.cnn.com)

My Two Cents: This US Congress needs to focus on more important issues than this Online Piracy Act bill. It has become more and more clear on why this Congress has only a 13% approval rating. Your Fired – needs to be the focus on this years elections. If this Bill passes, I believe, based on history, the potential misuse of it by the US Government will be a pure disaster to free speech. This Congress needs to focus on new jobs, new technology, new ideas, instead of control, power, and giving in to special interest groups!